Bedini Audio Spectral Enhancer
The Bedini Audio Spectral Enhancer (B.A.S.E. or BASE) is an audio signal processor invented by John Bedini. B.A.S.E. was used in the early 1990s during the mastering process in order to enhance sterephonic effects of several popular music recordings, such as the U.S. release of the first album by Orbital and the Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan soundtrack album. Some sources refer to the processor's effect as Bedini Audio Spatial Environment or Bedini Audio Spacial Environment.
Murky technical details
According to Bedini's company's marketing literature, B.A.S.E.-enhanced stereo sound is played through a pair of loudspeakers, its principal effect is to fool the brain into perceiving only the right-channel sound in the right ear, and the left-channel sound in the left ear, even though both ears are receiving sound from both channels.
Seemingly contradicting this claim, the following information was provided by John Bedini in his comments about the streaming audio station he created on December 30, 2004:
- The B.A.S.E. processor analyzes and separates a stereo signal into a stereo and mono path. The mono information can be moved forward, backward, Side To Side or anywhere within 360 degrees without loss of stereo ambient space. The stereo space can be increased or decreased while the mono signal is set anywhere desired. The results is an enhanced signal that goes beyond stereo, while enabling the user to be in complete control of all spacial aspects. When B.A.S.E. is applied in the mixing or mastering process the effect can be quite amazing, it is the only process that can create a Holographic Audio Image in open air. Processing of any live stream of music can be encoded with B.A.S.E. on both the outermost left/right channels, as well as the stereo-surround channels, to create a seamless, 360-degree spacial environment.
No reliable, independent verification of any of these claims has been made.
Related patent
In 1985, TVI Systems, Ltd. (Los Angeles, CA) was granted for a "monaural to binaural audio processor," as invented by John Bedini. The patent says the invention could be used in parallel to process multiple audio sources such as the left and right channels of stereo output, and the resulting pair of stereo signals could then be mixed.